Formula One: How you can win a night in the Williams garage for the Silverstone Grand Prix

Spending a night in a garage won’t be on many bucket lists but, just this once, sleeping with the mechanicals might be a dream come true – if you’re an F1 fan.

One F1 aficionado and a guest will be overnighting in the Williams garage at Silverstone – the night before the British Grand Prix.

The prize is being laid on by Williams sponsor Martini and Airbnb, and you can rest assured the winner won’t be sleeping in a pool of old oil next to empty paint cans and a greasy rag.

They’ll get to meet Williams driver Felipe Massa (pictured) and Deputy Team Principal Claire Williams before bedding down next to the team’s FW40 cars (and presumably being woken at the crack of dawn by the noise of spanners and screwdrivers).

Massa – who retired last year, only to return to Williams as a last-minute replacement for Valtteri Bottas – said: ‘For me, the Williams Martini Racing garage has always felt like a home away from home and I can’t wait to welcome the winners at Silverstone.’

The Williams garage and pit area is home to F1’s fastest pit crew. They regularly record the fastest pitstops – less than two seconds to change four wheels – and this week they said they wanted to break the one-second barrier.

What makes this even more remarkable is that the pit crew all have other jobs as well – they may be mechanics, strategists, engineers or suchlike but still train for the pressure of an F1 pitstop.

The competition winners will be hoping that Massa and team-mate Lance Stroll have a trouble-free qualifying session on Saturday. Because, if they crash, that night in the garage is going to be anything but silent as repairs are carried out…